- UK, French regimes bomb suspected Islamic State arms dump
Source: The New Arab [UK]
“Britain’s and France’s air forces conducted a joint operation on Saturday evening to bomb a suspected underground arms cache previously used by the Islamic State group in Syria, Britain’s defence ministry said. Western aircraft have been conducting patrols to stop a resurgence of the Islamist militant group that ruled parts of Syria until 2019. Intelligence analysis identified an underground facility believed to be used to store weapons and explosives in mountains north of Palmyra, Britain said.” (01/04/26)
https://www.newarab.com/news/uk-france-bomb-suspected-islamic-state-arms-dump-syria
- Astronomers detect rare “free floating” exoplanet 10,000 light-years from Earth
Source: Space.com
“Rogue planets — worlds that drift through space alone without a star — largely remain a mystery to scientists. Now, astronomers have for the first time confirmed the existence of one of these starless worlds by pinpointing its distance and mass — a rogue planet roughly the size of Saturn nearly 10,000 light-years from Earth. Planets are typically found bound to one or more stars. However, in 2000, astronomers detected the first signs of a “rogue planet” — a free-floating world that orbited no star. Then, in 2024, researchers detected an object distorting the light from a distant star, simultaneously from both Earth and space using several ground-based observatories as well as the European Space Agency’s now-retired Gaia space telescope. These observations helped scientists estimate that the object was a newfound world found about 9,950 light-years from Earth in the direction of the Milky Way’s center, with a mass about 70 times larger than Earth. (Saturn, on the other hand, is about 95 Earth masses.)” (01/02/26)
- Tesla sales fall to lowest point since 2022 after Elon Musk backlash
Source: Axios
“Tesla vehicle sales declined for a second consecutive year in 2025, hitting their lowest point since 2022. Tesla vehicle sales are critical to funding CEO Elon Musk’s AI ambitions, including humanoid robots and self-driving cars. The company on Friday reported a 8.6% drop in deliveries — a close approximation to sales — to 1.64 million for the year. The full-year drop came despite an unexpected boost to sales in the third quarter as consumers rushed to buy EVs to qualify for the federal tax cut before it expired at the end of September. Deliveries are now down 9.5% since their all-time high in 2023.” (01/02/26)
- US regime slashes proposed tariffs on American buyers of Italian pasta
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“Italian pasta is set to be spared from high-level US tariffs that the Trump administration had threatened against 13 producers. The move could have resulted in American importers being taxed at a rate greater than the value of the actual pasta itself, and prices rising sharply for US consumers. But on Thursday, the Italian foreign ministry said the proposed rate had now been drastically cut back. In a statement of its own, the US said the 13 firms had addressed many of its concerns. It previously accused the companies of selling their products at unfairly low prices and threatened tariffs of almost 92%. Tariffs are a type of tax paid by a consumer who imports a product.” (01/03/26)
- Switzerland: Regime launches criminal investigation over deadly fire at ski resort bar
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“Public prosecutors in Switzerland have opened a criminal investigation into the managers of the bar in Switzerland’s Crans Montana, where at least 40 people died in a fire. Two days after the fire, in which 119 people suffered injuries, including severe burns, officials were still trying to identify many of those killed. Attention has also turned to how one of Switzerland’s worst tragedies could have occurred. The bar’s two managers are suspected of offences including homicide by negligence, causing bodily harm by negligence and arson by negligence, prosecutors in Valais, the canton that is home to the bar in the upscale ski resort of Crans-Montana, said in a statement on Saturday. They did not name the pair.” (01/03/26)
- WI: Dugan resigns as judge after federal jury finds her guilty of helping immigrant avoid gang abduction
Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
“In the face of an effort to impeach her and remove her from the bench, Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan announced she is resigning. The announcement came on Jan. 3, weeks after a federal jury found Dugan guilty of obstructing federal immigration agents seeking to [abduct an immigrant] outside her courtroom. Dugan was found not guilty of concealing a wanted person, which is a misdemeanor.” (01/03/26)
- Kenya: Craig the beer-ambassador elephant dies aged 54
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“A Kenyan elephant believed to have been one of Africa’s largest male tuskers has died of old age. The pachyderm, fondly known as Craig, died of natural causes on Saturday morning at Amboseli National Park in southern Kenya, conservationists confirmed. ‘Craig had just turned 54 years old. He led a long life and no doubt fathered many calves,’ said the Amboseli Trust for Elephants in its farewell message. Famed for his long tusks, Craig the elephant was a major attraction at the park near the Tanzanian border. In 2021, he was named an ambassador for the popular Kenyan lager brand Tusker – a name also used for adult male elephants with tusks. The Kenya Wildlife Service described Craig as an ‘icon’ of successful conservation.” (01/03/25)
- Yemen: Saudi-backed forces advance in Hadramawt, military says
Source: France 24 [French state media]
“Saudi-backed troops on Saturday made advances in Yemen’s resource-rich Hadramawt province, military officials said, as confrontations between forces backed by Riyadh and Abu Dhabi deepened a rift between the two Gulf allies. The Saudis and Emiratis have for years supported rival factions in Yemen’s fractious government. But a recent offensive by the UAE-backed secessionist Southern Transitional Council (STC) to capture Hadramawt angered Riyadh and left the oil-rich regional powers on a collision course. In a statement, the military of the Saudi-aligned government announced that ‘all military and civilian facilities’ in Mukalla, the capital of Hadramawt province, had ‘been secured’ by Riyadh-backed forces.” (01/03/26)
- CA: “Train to nowhere” embarks on its second act, seeking private funding
Source: SFGate
“The Trump administration and California appear to have officially severed ties as the state moves forward with the long-delayed high-speed rail without the help of federal funds. On Dec. 23, the California High-Speed Rail Authority pulled the lawsuit it filed after the Trump administration scrapped $4 billion in funding this summer for the bullet train that would stretch from Los Angeles to San Francisco. The rail authority has now decided to seek funding from a private investor as early as summer 2026. ‘Moving forward without the Trump administration’s involvement allows the Authority to pursue proven global best practices used successfully by modern high-speed rail systems around the world,’ a spokesperson for the rail authority said in a statement.” (01/02/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/high-speed-rail-seeks-private-investor-21268482.php
- Trump tees up next Marxist nationalization scheme, blocks chipmaker merger over “national security”
Source: The Hill
“President Trump signed an executive order Friday blocking a semiconductor deal between HieFo Corp. and Emcore Corp., citing national security concerns related to China. ‘There is credible evidence that leads me to believe that HieFo Corporation, a company organized under the laws of Delaware (HieFo) and controlled by a citizen of the People’s Republic of China … might take action that threatens to impair the national security of the United States,’ Trump said in the order. HieFo is based in Delaware, while Emcore is based in New Jersey. Genzao Zhang is HieFo’s CEO and co-founder. Trump’s executive order blocks HieFo from acquiring ‘the assets comprising the digital chips and related wafer design, fabrication, and processing businesses of EMCORE.'” (01/02/26)
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5670409-hiefo-emcore-china-national-security/
- Court Notices California Regime’s Ban on Openly Carrying Guns Is Unconstitutional
Source: US News & World Report
“A U.S. appeals court on Friday ruled that California’s ban on openly carrying firearms in most parts of the state was unconstitutional. A panel of the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided 2-1 with a gun owner in ruling that the state’s prohibition against open carry in counties with more than 200,000 people violated U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. About 95% of the population in California, which has had some of the nation’s strictest gun-control laws, live in counties of that size. U.S. Circuit Judge Lawrence VanDyke, who was appointed by Republican President Donald Trump, said the Democratic-led state’s law could not stand under the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 landmark gun rights ruling.” (01/02/26)
- Candidate for Pelosi’s congressional seat says Meta is “squeezing” workers
Source: SFGate
“Saikat Chakrabarti, a candidate who’s hoping to replace Rep. Nancy Pelosi, is pitching a four-day workweek, citing Mark Zuckerberg’s new AI push as a warning sign. ‘We should be talking about four-day workweeks as a result of AI,’ Chakrabarti said in a video posted on New Year’s Eve on X. ‘But instead what we’re seeing is companies squeezing more and more work out of their workers with no extra benefits.’ Chakrabarti, a former tech engineer and now a bastion of progressive politics, is running for the coveted San Francisco House seat, which is open after Pelosi announced her retirement in 2025. Chakrabarti, who has a list of progressive policy reforms reminiscent of his former bosses, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, is putting Meta in the hot seat after it was leaked that the company is implementing intense productivity standards for its employees.” (01/03/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/saikat-chakrabarti-four-day-work-week-21273138.php
- Judge denies pretrial release for alleged DC pipe bomber
Source: United Press International
“A Washington, D.C., federal magistrate judge ruled Friday that a man who allegedly set pipe bombs outside of political party headquarters on Jan. 5, 2021, must stay behind bars before his trial. Brian Cole Jr., 30, faces charges of transporting an explosive device and attempted malicious destruction by means of explosive materials. The charges have a maximum sentence of 30 years. He allegedly placed two bombs in front of the Democratic National Committee and Republican National Committee headquarters, though the bombs never detonated. He was arrested Dec. 4 and hasn’t entered a plea. Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles Jones filed a request on Dec. 30 to keep Cole in jail while he awaits trial. Cole’s attorneys wanted him released into the custody of his grandmother.” (01/02/26)
- Interest on US politicians’ debt crosses $1 trillion mark
Source: Newser
“The national debt is moving into unseen territory, with annual interest owed shattering the $1 trillion mark. That’s nearly triple the charge run up just six years ago—$345 billion in 2020—according to estimates from the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, Quartz reports. The federal government now owes about $38.4 trillion to its lenders, though economists aren’t sounding the alarm just yet about a default or a rapid loss of confidence.” (01/03/26)
https://www.newser.com/story/381354/interest-on-debt-crosses-1t-with-no-signs-of-slowing.html
- January 3: The “Peace President’s” Latest Date Which Will Live in Infamy
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp“The very best possible outcome of the attack is that the Venezuelan people rise up, overthrow the current regime, and replace it with something more to their liking — but probably not to the Washington, DC regime’s liking. Which they could have done at any time, without Trump’s help, had they chosen to. The more likely outcome is that US forces will install a puppet/quisling regime to rule Venezuela to Trump’s (and Big Oil’s) liking, then spend years bleeding American blood and treasure into the place before an ignominious departure (with or without formal surrender). What’s NOT likely is that Trump and his accomplices will be removed from office/power, charged under US law, or extradited for trial under international law. That’s a shame.” (01/03/26)
- Trump’s gunboat diplomacy is a betrayal of populism
Source: spiked
by Brendan O’Neill“So regime change is back? Having for years mocked the wasteful, lethal Clinton-Bush-Obama crusades against states they hated, now President Trump has carried out a regime decapitation of his own. Having installed as his director of national intelligence one of the most stinging critics of regime-change wars – Tulsi Gabbard – now Trump launches not quite a regime-change war but certainly a regime-change strike. Having said MAGA would end these ruinous excursions and prioritise the needs of the American working class, now Trump goes south and does what so many administrations before his did: topples a Latin American dictator.” (01/03/25)
https://www.spiked-online.com/2026/01/03/trumps-gunboat-diplomacy-is-a-betrayal-of-populism/
- Monroe Doctrine: the Bad Neighbor Returns
Source: CounterPunch
by Jeffrey Sommers“President Trump signaled the Monroe Doctrine’s return from the start of his second term. A volatile mix of geopolitical, hemispheric and local politics was in play. The world’s largest reserves of ‘Texas Tea’ turned the wandering Eye of Sauron in Washington on the birthplace of the Bolivarian Revolution. The Trump Administration intends to juice US and global economic growth by reducing energy costs, as we saw in the 1980s and 1990s when oil prices dropped. Fossil fuels are the Trump Administration’s preferred choice of dirty energy to fuel the AI boom, which the US intends to lead. Oil-laden tankers departing from Venezuela en route to China are not part of the program. Meanwhile, the Trump Administration treats the American public like turnip truck rubes.” (01/03/26)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/01/03/monroe-doctrine-the-bad-neighbor-returns-2/
- Maduro Is Gone — Venezuela’s Dictatorship Is Not
Source: Persuasion
by Quico Toro“Venezuelans today are waking up to an unrecognizable country. Like every dictatorship, Maduro’s had invested heavily in the myth of its own invincibility. And yet the regime is very much still in place, albeit in a weird, decapitated state. State TV is still running regime propaganda, Vice President (soon, one surmises, to shed the ‘vice’) Delcy Rodríguez is still fulminating on behalf of the Venezuelan government, the hardline interior minister Diosdado Cabello is still giving fire-breathing speeches condemning American aggression, Maduro’s notoriously repressive attorney general, Tarek William Saab, is still out mining the night’s events for propaganda points. The entire ghastly apparatus of state repression that Hugo Chávez built and Nicolás Maduro perfected appears, for now, to be fully in control of the country. Maduro is gone. It’s tempting to think that, without him, the regime will implode. But Maduro’s was never the kind of personalist system that depends on a single leader.” (01/03/26)
https://www.persuasion.community/p/maduro-is-gonevenezuelas-dictatorship
- Thoughts on the Capture of Maduro and Trump’s Attack on Venezuela
Source: The Volokh Conspiracy
by Ilya Somin“Maduro is a brutal dictator who is getting what he deserves. But Trump’s actions are still illegal, because lacking proper congressional authorization. Whether they result in a beneficial regime change in Venezuela remains to be seen.” (01/03/26)
- Trump goes monster-hunting, untainted by a whiff of legality
Source: Washington Post
by George F Will“That Nicolás Maduro is a monster is patent, as was the illegitimacy of his government, which disdained respect for the consent of the governed. But the urgent argument begins, not ends, with those two facts. Heartbreak, a risk inherent in puppy love, today afflicts those who believed this president’s reiterated disparagements of U.S. involvement in regime changes, wars of choice and nation-building. The lovers will recover. … When Theodore Roosevelt asked Attorney General Philander Knox to concoct a legal justification for the unsavory U.S. measures that enabled construction of the Panama Canal, Knox replied, ‘Oh, Mr. President, do not let so great an achievement suffer from any taint of legality.’” (01/03/26)
- Israel And Its Supporters Deliberately Foment Hate And Division In Our Society
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone“I’ve noticed a lot of angry comments underneath my posts these past few days which bizarrely mention the words ‘Islam’ and ‘Muslims’ completely out of the blue. ‘Why don’t you turn your attention sometimes to the genocidal intent of the radical Muslims, or does that suit your racist narrative?’ reads one tweet. ‘What can you say about Islamic Jihadists Muslims murdering thousands of Christians in Sudan and other parts of Africa?’ reads another. ‘The muslims must be irradicated’, reads another. There are too many examples to quote here, but here’s what’s so funny about all this: I haven’t been saying anything about Islam or Muslims on Twitter — I’ve been tweeting about Israel. Hasbarists just babble about Islam when they can’t defend Israel’s actions.” (01/03/25)
- A Real Test for New FDA Reforms
Source: Independent Institute
by Raymond J March“National public health policy under the leadership of Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made no shortage of headlines in 2025. As a short list, RFK made controversial statements about vaccines, vowed (but failed) to find the root cause of autism, initiated efforts to ban some food dyes, cut funding, cut employment, misused AI, and tried to eliminate medical scientists from publishing in select academic journals based on their funding. Less importantly, he also wears jeans when he works out. In contrast, the Food and Drug Administration, easily the most powerful sub-agency overseen by the HHS and RFK, has had a quiet 2025. It began the process of banning red dye #3 in food products, reassessed some safety standards for cosmetics, and implemented a rule now requiring complete safety disclosures in drug advertisements. Most of the FDA’s planned major reforms are still underway.” (01/02/26)
https://www.independent.org/article/2026/01/02/new-fda-reforms/
- Asia giants find warmer ties may cool conflict
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff“Relations between China and India – the world’s two most populous nations, which also rank among its top five economies – have been fraught and frosty for decades, starting with armed conflict in 1962 along their shared Himalayan border and, more recently, a serious clash in 2020. But going into this new year, there are encouraging signs of a gradual thaw between the two nuclear-armed Asian powers. Even this slight warming – which one Indian diplomat described to a news magazine as a “state of armed coexistence” along disputed border areas – helps temper potential military flash points. On the political and economic fronts, the prospects are somewhat brighter. The leaders of both countries have met in recent months; flights and tourist travel are slowly resuming. And officials are exploring avenues for economic diversification and integration – moves that could boost regional growth as well as strengthen Global South economies jolted by the unexpectedly steep U.S. trade tariffs of 2025.” (01/02/25)
- Even Elon’s Techno-Utopia Won’t Make Money Meaningless
Source: The Daily Economy
by Peter C Earle“Elon Musk recently put forth a bold vision: that within two decades, AI will automate virtually all productive activity, work will be optional, and money will lose meaning. Coming from Musk, such pronouncements carry gravitas. And noticeably, the expressed vision unsurprisingly dovetails neatly with Musk’s admittedly exciting entrepreneurial visions. Yet variants of those claims have circulated for years, usually without reference to economic theory, institutional constraints, or political risk. Rigorously examining those assertions is essential to decouple technological optimism from the practical realities that will shape the next two decades.” (01/02/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/even-elons-techno-utopia-wont-make-money-meaningless/
- This Is a Blatant Illegal Act of War Against Venezuela by Trump
Source: Common Dreams
by Medea Benjamin & Michelle Ellner“Overnight, the United States government bombed civilian and military sites across Venezuela and illegally kidnapped Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. These are blatant and illegal acts of war by the Trump Administration. This act of aggression is a continuation of US attempts to seize and plunder Venezuela’s natural resources and undermine Venezuela’s sovereignty as well as the sovereignty of other countries in Latin America. This war also does not reflect the will of the people. Nearly 70% of Americans oppose another war and reject the endless cycle of military interventions carried out in their name. … The U.S. now claims Maduro will face ‘criminal charges’ in a US court. This sham proceeding will be done under the auspices of ‘drug trafficking’ — but we know it has nothing to do with that, and everything to do with Trump’s policy of regime change.” (01/03/25)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/trump-venezuela-2674845101
- Fortunately, Liberals Can More Easily Defeat the Resurging Totalitarian-Isms of Yore
Source: The UnPopulist
by Daniel M Rothschild“Both extremes are recycling old ideologies, but liberalism has a far stronger hand to counter them before they cause the death and destruction of the last century.” (01/02/26)
https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/fortunately-liberals-can-more-easily
- Where did capitalism really begin?
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Sven Beckert“It is impossible to pinpoint an exact place or moment when capitalism began. Capitalism is a process, not a discrete historical event with a beginning and an end, and it did not drop fully formed into a particular location. Even today, no society is organised along fully capitalist lines, and some have argued that a fully capitalist world is a theoretical impossibility. Efforts to isolate one patch of soil as capitalism’s place of origin — Florence, Barbados, Amsterdam, Baghdad, the southern English countryside, or Manchester, for example — have all proved insufficient. That is because the capitalist revolution had always been a process that drew energy from myriad sources.” (01/02/26)
- Musk vs. Mamdani: Unmasking the Media’s Fake Narratives
Source: Karl Dickey’s Freedom Vanguard
by Karl Dickey“I am not sure if you caught Zohran Mamdani’s swearing in ceremony and his speech as he became New York City’s new mayor, but it was an eye opener for sure. I am going to leave his notion that the collective is better than the individual comment aside as I want to focus on a gesture he did during the event, that was precisely the same as Elon Musk made during a similar event almost a year ago. Yet, the mainstream media has taken two dramatically different views to create a false narrative that the public happily ate up.” (01/02/26)
https://palmbeachexaminer.substack.com/p/musk-vs-mamdani-unmasking-the-medias
- Why capture of Maduro didn’t require approval from Congress
Source: Fox News
by Jonathan Turley“In an extraordinary military operation, the United States launched a large-scale military operation in Caracas, Venezuela, early Saturday, with Special Forces seizing President Nicolás Maduro and his wife. There is a pending 2020 indictment of Maduro in the Southern District of New York, where he is expected to be taken to face prosecution. The operation comes not long after the 37th anniversary of the capture of Manuel Antonio Noriega on Dec. 20, 1989. Noriega was convicted of drug and money laundering offenses and sentenced to 40 years in prison. He was tried in Miami. Maduro was indicted in a four-count superseding indictment …” (01/03/25)
- Trump’s Threat to “Rescue” Iranian Protesters Is Reckless
Source: Eunomia
by Daniel Larison“The last thing that protesters in Iran need are threats of intervention from the U.S. government. The last thing that the U.S. needs is another conflict in the Middle East. The U.S. is not helping anything in Iran by threatening to attack the country. It is a reckless threat, and it puts the U.S. and Iran on yet another unnecessary collision course.” (01/02/26)
https://daniellarison.substack.com/p/trumps-threat-to-rescue-iranian-protesters
- Warm Individualism or Cold Collectivism?
Source: Free Association
by Sheldon Richman“Newly inaugurated New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani promises to ‘replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism.’ Funny that he chose those words. In Europe, where collectivist anti-fossil-fuels ‘green’ policies have been enacted in the name of combating a conjured-up climate emergency, many people get dangerously cold in the winter. So far, this hasn’t happened on a large scale in America, where the climate collectivists have not been as adept in imposing their lethal program as their European counterparts. Freer markets keep people warmer in winter.” (01/02/26)
https://sheldonfreeassociation.blogspot.com/2026/01/tgif-warm-individualism-or-cold.html
- New weapons to Taiwan: “Overdue correction” or poorly timed move?
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Jennifer Kavanagh“There is a right way and a dumb way to show US support for the island. China’s moves since the announcement indicates which is which.” (01/02/26)
- Enter, Stage Left, Mayor Mamdani
Source: The American Prospect
by Harold Meyerson“I do not mean this as a negative assessment when I say that what Zohran Mamdani’s inaugural address as mayor of New York reminded me most of was Woody Allen’s Manhattan (albeit with a more all-encompassing view of the city. Like Manhattan, Mamdani’s speech was a love-besotted tour of New York) though with a focus on the city’s multiracial working and middle class you can’t find anywhere in the Allen oeuvre. For Mamdani, this focus was intended to be a means of identification and reassurance (I am one of you, I know you), legitimacy (I represent all of you), and commitment (I will fight for you all). It was a homeboy speech. A local, not an express, was stopping at every other street corner to celebrate the halal carts and the delis.” (01/02/25)
https://prospect.org/2026/01/02/enter-stage-left-mayor-mamdani/
- Hot in New York City
Source: Common Sense
by Paul JacobZohran Mamdani was not yet the new mayor of New York City when the city council signaled that it would serve as willing accomplice in his assault on fundamental property rights. In December, the city council passed legislation that had been hanging fire for several years, the Community Opportunity to Purchase Act (COPA), to further limit New Yorkers’ right to use and dispose of their own stuff. COPA would give ‘give certain nonprofits … an early shot to bid on certain residential properties that go up for sale, before they hit the wider market.’ The law pertains to buildings ‘with poor conditions or where an affordability provision is expiring.’ … If COPA is not dead on arrival, it will depress market prices as the city strongarms owners into making deals at lower-than-market prices.” (01/02/26)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2026/01/02/hot-in-new-york-city/
- US sanctions are losing their bite
Source: Washington Post
by Peter Harrell“Companies in Europe, the Middle East and Asia — such as banks, shippers, oil refiners, traders and insurers — have historically faced a choice when dealing with U.S. sanctions regimes. They could do business with a targeted country such as Iran and risk being sanctioned, effectively cutting them off from U.S. suppliers, banks, customers and all the wealth of U.S. markets. Or they could refrain from doing business with the world’s rogue states and retain their access to the U.S. economy. In the 2000s and 2010s, most companies chose the U.S. The risk of being cut off was just too great. Today, however, a growing business ecosystem is taking the other side of that choice: They are willing to risk getting cut off from the U.S. because there is enough money to be made elsewhere.” (01/02/26)
- Murder and Grace in Wake Up Dead Man
Source: Law & Liberty
by Tyler Syck“Since at least the trial of Sextus Roscius in the days of Ancient Rome, humans have had a strange fascination with murder. The source of this fixation is debatable. Perhaps it stems from the basic human fear of death or else from our desperate need to see justice and order done in a chaotic world. Whatever the root, humanity’s interest in murder has now transformed into an entire commercial industry filled with reality TV shows, podcasts, and sensational journalism. Detective fiction has long been the most cultured avenue of our murder obsession. In the books of authors such as Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, and John Dickinson Carr, the quest to discover a murderer turns into a cerebral window into human nature and society. The latest iteration in this great tradition is Rian Johnson’s Knives Out movies featuring the enigmatic Southern Sleuth Benoit Blanc (played by the inimitable Daniel Craig).” (01/02/25)
https://lawliberty.org/murder-and-grace-in-wake-up-dead-man/
- How to Destroy a Country
Source: Town Hall
by Mark Lewis“I don’t mean to imply, by the title of this article, that I think America is about to totally ‘destroy’ itself. I happen to believe that the United States, in some shape, form, or fashion, will be around for a long time into the future. I don’t know what shape, form, or fashion that will be; indeed, America has already monumentally changed, since 1789, from the virtuous, limited, constitutional government (a ‘confederacy,’ Alexander Hamilton called it), into a society with a dominant federal government that does whatever it can get away with. In effect, we have become, in a way, exactly what our Founding Fathers rebelled against. But time changes many things, and countries are among those things.” (01/03/25)
https://townhall.com/columnists/marklewis/2026/01/03/how-to-destroy-a-country-n2668804
- Bastard Century
Source: The Dispatch
by Kevin D Williamson“People used to have a ‘midlife crisis’ in their late 30s, or even earlier, back when a man might reasonably say that he expected to die ‘in my late 50s with a heart full of pastrami.’ The midlife crisis moved to later ages with advancing life expectancy, and I suppose it was a decade or so ago I began to hear people talk about the ‘quarter-life crisis’ at age 25. As the 21st century enters its second quarter, one might wonder if this century is going to provide anything except crisis.” (01/02/26)
https://thedispatch.com/article/bush-gore-al-qaeda-century-crisis-trump-biden/
- How Protesters Became Content for the Cops
Source: Wired
by Dell Cameron“In 2025, protest policing in major US cities increasingly took on the character of a spectacle: overwhelming deployments, theatrical staging, and aggressive crowd-control tactics that emphasized signaling power over maintaining public safety. This was not a one-off episode; it followed the deployment of federal troops into multiple Democratic-led cities, prompting lawsuits and court challenges that local leaders described, with justification, as militarized intimidation. … Across Chicagoland, protest control became overtly choreographed. … The most brazen moment came when homeland security secretary Kristi Noem appeared on the facility’s roof beside armed agents and a camera crew, positioned near a sniper’s post, as arrests unfolded below. This was performative policing at its most distilled: public safety reduced to a spectacle with vaguely defined urban threats cast as the danger being neutralized.” (01/02/25)
- Cuba After Communism
Source: EconLog
by Carlos Martinez“On January 1, 1959, Fidel Castro and his bearded revolutionaries marched into Havana. Church bells rang across the island as Batista fled into exile. This January 1st marked the 67th anniversary of that revolution. Sixty-seven years of a system built on deception, imposed through violence, and sustained through repression. But now, for the first time since Castro’s march into Havana, genuine change appears inevitable.” (01/02/25)
- The Rent Is Too Damn High! Time for a Rent Freeze?
Source: In These Times
by J Patrick Patterson“Critics warn that a rent freeze can actually make the housing crisis worse. Even if new housing construction is exempt, skeptics say the policy could discourage building in general as developers and investors scale back. Meanwhile, the real estate lobby argues that landlords would get squeezed by rising costs, which would lead to deferred building maintenance and more vacant units. Warnings against rent control policies often come wrapped in dire metaphors about ’destroying cities’ and ’halting investment’, but, politically, freezes are popular. More than three-quarters of voters support them, depending on the poll. Long term, we need more housing — but construction takes years and often faces fierce resistance. A thoughtfully designed freeze could protect renters against precarity while paving the way for a more comprehensive approach to the housing crisis.” (01/02/25)
https://inthesetimes.com/article/the-rent-is-too-damn-high-rent-freeze-tenants-housing-crisis
- Once Again, the New York Times Sells Israel’s Genocide in Gaza as Law Enforcement
Source: Antiwar.com
by Jonathan Cook“Israel is expelling 37 aid groups – a likely death sentence for 100,000s of Palestinians. But the Times speaks only of ‘new rules’ in Gaza, and ‘suspensions’ for those who ‘resist registration.'” (01/02/25)
- Unattended Baggage, episode 323
Source: Unattended Baggage
“There’s oil in them there drug countries!” (01/03/26)
https://unattendedbaggage.substack.com/p/episode-323-theres-oil-in-them-there
- System Update, 01/03/26
Source: System Update
“Trump Bombs Venezuela, Removes Maduro.” (01/03/26)
https://rumble.com/v73te0s-trump-bombs-venezuela-removes-maduro.html
- Why America’s Inequality Story Doesn’t Add Up
Source: Reason
“Taxes, benefits, and household data make America look more unequal than it is.” (01/02/26)
https://reason.com/2026/01/02/why-americas-inequality-story-doesnt-add-up/
- Freedom Works with Paul Molloy, 01/02/26
Source: Freedom Works
“Kevin Erdmann, Mercatus Center ‘US Housing Wealth is a Mirage.'” (01/02/26)
https://internetradiopros.com/freedomworks/?name=2026-01-03_zfw12292025.mp3
- The Kyle Anzalone Show, 01/02/26
Source: Libertarian Institute
“Did Ukraine Try to Kill Putin?” (01/02/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/blog/the-kyle-anzalone-show-did-ukraine-try-to-kill-putin
- The Dishcast with Andrew Sullivan, 01/02/26
Source: The Weekly Dish
“Laura Field On Trump’s Intellectuals.” (01/02/26)
https://andrewsullivan.substack.com/p/laura-field-on-trumps-intellectuals
- The Tom Woods Show, episode 2722
Source: The Tom Woods Show
“Darryl Cooper on the Civil War on the Right.” (01/02/26)
https://tomwoods.com/ep-2722-darryl-cooper-on-the-civil-war-on-the-right/
- Mixed Signals, 01/02/26
Source: Semafor
“Kevin O’Leary on playing the villain and turning attention into power.” (01/02/26)
https://www.semafor.com/article/01/02/2026/kevin-oleary-mixed-signals
- Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 01/02/26
Source: Antiwar.com
“Maduro Declines To Comment on Reports of US Attack, Netanyahu and Trump Celebrate New Year, and More.” (01/02/26)